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#Post#: 30--------------------------------------------------
LEARNING FROM THE GIANTS
By: IMPACT360 Date: November 28, 2014, 4:54 am
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No, not those Giants. (Although I’m sure there are
many lessons we could learn from this year’s
World Series winners the San Francisco Giants.)
Instead, I’m talking about the giants of the faith
whose stories are captured in the Bible.
Imagine you could spend a day being mentored by
some of the giants of the faith, the men and
women of the Old Testament who fought and won
great battles, served kings, endured great hardship
for God, and came out on the other side
transformed. What if they could sit down in a chair
across from you, and you had the privilege of
spending a few precious minutes with each of
them? What would that be like?
That was the intriguing idea that drove me to write
my upcoming book, Learning from the Giants .
I have been studying the leaders of the Bible for
more than fifty years. Truth be told, everything I
know about leadership has come from Scripture. I
shared some of the insights I gained about life and
leadership in Running with the Giants . For many
years, people have been asking me to write
another book like it. I’ve spent another ten years
reading, meditating on, and studying the major
figures of the Bible. And I’m finally ready to share
what I’ve learned.
Today I want to share leadership lessons from the
great prophet Elijah (whose entire story can be
found in the Bible’s 1 and 2 Kings):
There is much we can learn from Elijah’s story.
The primary lesson in my book is that God Loves
You on Your Bad Days . In addition, three
leadership lessons stand out to me:
Even God’s Best Leaders Are Human
It’s very easy for us to read the Bible and believe
that the great leaders whose stories we read were
somehow beyond life’s normal trials, temptations,
and failures. We want to see these giants of the
faith as superhuman, but they were not. Their gifts
were greater than they were. And they were asked
to do things beyond their own capacity. They were
in many ways ordinary men and women, but they
served an extraordinary God!
Leaders Make the Greatest Impact When They
Lead
As obvious as it may sound, leaders must
remember that they make a positive difference
when they lead. As leaders, we can get caught up
in many things that aren’t the main thing. Elijah
was at his best when he was leading on Mount
Carmel. Good leaders remain focused on what God
has called them to do.
God’s Desire for Discouraged Leaders Is for Them
to Get Back into Leadership
Every leader fails. Every leader becomes
discouraged at some time. Every leader becomes
disappointed and wants to run away or quit. Often
other people look at a leader’s failure and think,
They’ve blown it. They are disqualified from ever
leading again.
But that’s not how God thinks. When these things
happen, what is God’s desire for these leaders? He
wants them to be restored to Him and to get back
into the game. After God connected with Elijah and
restored their relationship, He told Elijah to go back
the way he came, because He still had things for
him to do. We should continue to serve God in
whatever way He asks. We’re not finished until He
says so.
If you enjoyed this excerpt, you might want to read
the rest of the book. If you do, you will be able to
join me as I imagine what it would be like to meet
nine giants of the faith as they share the lessons
they learned about life and leadership.
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